Ken Ilgunas arrives at the Beaumont city limits from the west on Tx. 105 Tuesday afternoon after following the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline originating in Hardisty, Alberta in Canada. He's hiked the more than 1,700 miles sine mid-September 2012.
photo provided by Pete Churton

Ken Ilgunas will reach the end of a very long walk today that took him from the source of the Keystone XL pipeline in Hardesty, Alberta, a province in western Canada, to its terminus in Port Arthur near the Valero Energy Corp. refinery.

In all, he will have covered more than 1,700 linear miles on his two feet - throw in another couple of hundred miles to include getting lost or trying to pick his way across rivers he couldn't easily cross where the pipeline route did.

His quest, begun in September, was to follow the actual route of the pipeline that will carry a type of crude oil, melted from tar sands dug up from a remote site in northern Alberta.

Ilgunas, 29, reached Beaumont on Tuesday and was resting for a couple of days at a private home.

At the start of his journey, Ilgunas said he wasn't for or against the Keystone pipeline, which has passionate defenders and opponents. He just wanted to see the route for himself.

"There's no good guy or bad guy," he said of the Keystone pipeline and the tar sands debate.

"It's a battle of outlook. There are people who want the resources now versus the ones who want a stable environment in the future," he said.